China's 600 km/h maglev train test line expects completion in 2021

File photo shows high-speed rail in China. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's 600 km/h maglev (magnetic levitation) train project, launched earlier this year, is in full swing.

Jia Limin, head of China's high-speed rail innovation program, said a high-speed maglev test line with a length of no less than 5 kilometers under the project is expected to be completed by 2021.

CRRC Corporation Limited, China's largest rail transportation equipment maker, said it would construct the test line.

In addition, Shandong province in East China plans to construct a high-speed maglev system that runs from Jinan, the province's capital city to Qingdao, which is the first operation line based on this project, Jia said.

"That is the reason why we built the 5-km test line in Qingdao," he said.

CRRC said in October that China was launching a bullet train project containing a 600 km/h high-speed maglev train and a 400 km/h international multimodal transport high-speed train.

Ministry of Science and Technology has decided to transfer some key research projects over to enterprises, such as the CRRC, a conference on major special rail transportation projects announced in October.

CRRC was the first enterprise to take on the trial projects, who received seven out of ten projects from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The company will also develop maglev trains that travel at 200 km/h under the project.